About one month ago, retired Red Sox slugger Jim Rice quietly launched Ask14.com, a blog sponsored by Sullivan Tire. It got a few passingmentions at the time, but things have been pretty quiet since... until this weekend.

Last week a story came out in which Torii Hunter remarked that he heard racist taunts while playing as a visitor at Fenway. Other people have made remarks to the media about racism at Fenway over the years and, though I can't speak for what another player has experienced, in my 15+ years of playing in Boston, I never encountered this type of behavior directed at me, a teammate, or opposing player.

Actually, I never really heard of this type of behavior at any of the opposing ballparks that I played at. We always thought Yankee fans would be the worst but they're just like any place else. Fans are gonna say "you suck" because you hurt their ball club. If you are just making outs and errors in the field, they won't say a word. But when you do something to hurt their team such as hitting a home run, stealing a base, or throwing out a runner the fans will get on your case.

That's well covered, but it brings us to another question: If Rice's blog can take off, could that be enough to put him in the Hall of Fame?

You may remember that Rice fell just 16 votes short of enshrinement in January, his second-to-last chance to be voted in by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

That's oh-so-close, but Rice also must contend with another sure-fire first ballot Hall of Famer -- Ricky Henderson -- joining the mix this year. That's something that hurt Rice in the past, particularly when Cal Ripkin Jr. and Tony Gwynn became eligible in 2007 and Rice's voting numbers actually dipped a bit after years of steady progression.

Here's how I see this playing out: If Rice can continue to make trenchant points and share cool stories from his playing days on his blog, it'll take off in popularity.

[Question from fan:] I remember watching you when I was in high school and how they always talked about the strength of your forearms and your bat speed. I also remember an "urban legend" that you could break a bat at the handle just by swinging and flicking your wrists. Any truth to that?

Tom F.

Tyngsboro, MA

[Rice answers:] I did it twice in games. On two separate occasions I broke bats without ever making contact with the pitch and both were check swings. I think one was in Oakland and a curveball started out high and I committed to swing, but when it broke downward on me and I tried to stop my swing I was left just holding the bat handle in my hands.